I watched this documentary the other night and it raised a couple of possibilities as to why the Iceberg was seen too late and why the Californian insisted that the ship that they were looking at was not the Titanic, it was claimed that what caused this was a Mirage caused by a set of circumstances which come together once in a while, whilst i can't go into the science that was used it was very interesting and certainly a possibility

I think that what is missed with many of the titles of these documentaries is best summed up by Walter Lord in the final pages of ANTR. He wrote that "it is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down."